Quaternion Description ====================== The components of the QUATERNION keyword in a data label rotate a vector defined in the Earth Mean Equator J2000 (EME J2000) reference frame to the instrument-fixed reference frame. The QUATERNION keyword provides an ordered list of the four components of the quaternion, zero through three, with the zeroeth component as the scalar and the first, second and third as the vector components, where q0 = cos(a/2), q1 = -sin(a/2)*u1, q2 = -sin(a/2)*u2, q3 = -sin(a/2)*u3, a is the angle (radians) representing the magnitude of the rotation, and u1, u2, u3 are components of the unit vector representing the axis of rotation. The order of the components in the QUATERNION keyword is (q0, q1, q2, q3). This is the structure employed in SPICE C-Kernels and Toolkit subroutines, and is the PDS recommended structure. The SPICE Toolkit provides an assortment of routines for applying quaternions. In the SPICE context, the equations for forming a rotation matrix (a C-inverse matrix) from the four quaternion elements are: +- -+ | 1-2*(q2*q2+q3*q3) 2*(q1*q2-q0*q3) 2*(q1*q3+q0*q2) | | | CMAT = | 2*(q1*q2+q0*q3) 1-2*(q1*q1+q3*q3) 2*(q2*q3-q0 q1) | | | | 2*(q1*q3-q0*q2) 2*(q2*q3 + q0*q1) 1-2*(q1*q1+q2*q2) | +- -+ The C-inverse matrix is a 3x3 matrix that transforms Cartesian coordinates referenced to the EME J2000 reference frame to the instrument-fixed reference frame. The matrix transforms coordinates as follows: if a vector v has coordinates (x, y, z) in the EME J2000 reference frame, then v coordinates (x', y', z') in the instrument-fixed reference frame. [ ] [ x ] [ x'] | CMAT | | y | = | y'| [ ] [ z ] [ z']